WASHINGTON — David Wright made it clear that he wanted to play last night and play his way out of the prolonged slump he’s been in.
Mets manager Jerry Manuel, however, saw things differently and sat Wright down in the Mets’ 5-3 loss in the series opener at Nationals Park. This despite the fact that Wright had a .334 against Livan Hernandez, with four homers and 10 RBIs in 36 career at-bats.
But some recent ugly numbers by Wright outweighed his success against Hernandez. Before last night’s game, Wright had struck out in 15 straight games and in 27 of his previous 57 at-bats. Tuesday night, Wright struck out with the go-ahead run at third base in the ninth inning and made a throwing error in the bottom of the inning that allowed the winning run to score in a 3-2 loss to the Braves.
“You wanna play, but I don’t fill out the lineup card,” Wright said before the game after he found out he was being replaced in the lineup by Fernando Tatis. Tatis hit a sole home run in the ninth and went 1-for-4.
Wright, however, didn’t react like Florida’s Hanley Ramirez, who, after being benched for a lack of hustle, ripped Marlins’ manager Fredi Gonzalez.
“It’s Jerry’s decision to put [Fernando] Tatis in there,” Wright said. “I’ll be on the bench, supporting these guys. . . . If Tatis gives us the best chance to win, I’m all for it.”
That would be Tatis, an owner of a .220 average.
Manuel was asked how Wright reacted to the news, one day after Wright said that a day off “would be the worst thing for me.”
“He didn’t give you my 55 [career] at-bats and that I had five hits in the big leagues, what do I know about hitting?” said Manuel, referring to Ramirez’s criticism of Gonzalez. “We have to make decisions at times to give people a break here and there. I just thought [this] would be a good time to give [Wright] a break.”
That came despite Wright’s success against Hernandez and the fact that Tatis has been unproductive since he stopped playing regularly with the emergence of Ike Davis at first base. Heading into last night’s game, Tatis was just 4-for-22 (.182) over his last 14 games with an at-bat.
The bigger issue is Wright’s continued struggles at the plate, where he was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and an error that led to the game-winning run in the loss in Atlanta.
“I’ve never liked having off days,” Wright said. “Of course I told him I’d rather play.”
When he’s back in the lineup, he’s hoping to get better results.
“I’ve been in slumps before,” Wright said. “It’s not the first time and it’s surely not gonna be the last. I don’t want to go out there and really struggle at both ends of the game like I’ve been doing recently.”
The only way to recover will be on the field.
“I’ve gotta fight my way out of it,” Wright said. “All it takes is one swing, one at-bat where something clicks, you feel good and you go on a hot streak.”